#Á' . " .. - THE NEW YORKER Downs, in Massachusetts; Normie 0., a bald psychology major, who took top honors and ten thousand dollars in an N.Y.R.A. handicap challenge; Mr. Dirt, a former script man for "Be- witched," who jammed crumpled C- notes into his trousers. The mid-seventies were golden years for the sheet players. It was not uncommon for a horse to ship into New York from out of state, have the best figures and condition line in a race, and go off at 15-1. "In those days, it was like going into a chicken coop wIth a gun and shooting anything you wanted," one of the Raggies says. "No one else knew what was going on. No one else had figures." The conventional wisdom then was "class" handicapping, which judged horses by the company they kept and the money they'd won. A class handi- capper would be loath to bet on ex- claimers like Sunny and Mild or Frampton Delight to win an allow- ance race, much less a stakes. Such horses would be deemed ill-bred party crashers, out of their depth. It was a comfortable theory, in line with the sport's élitist origins. It was also hope- lessly outmoded. "It was always the class bettors against us," the Bomber says, "and in the long run they went broke and we made a fortune." In the short run, there were out- landish betting coups. In the autumn of 1976, the sheets led the Bomber to claim a four-year-old colt named Sea T rain in a three-thousand -dollar race at Atlantic City, normally the prov- ince of cripples and plow horses. Sea Train lost again that day, but the Bomber didn't care. Earlier in the meet, Sea Train had run on the turf for the first time, and had finished a distant sixth. Ragozin's figures, how- ever, showed that Sea Train had run the race of his life that day-a full eight points better than his best run on dirt. The quality of his effort, lost in the Racing Form, made Sea Train irresistible to the Bomber "If I don't claim him," he explained, "no one ever runs him on the grass again, and I can't make the bet." His plan was derailed for severa] months after Sea Train bowed a tendon, but the horse recovered, and the Bomber found the right spot in September 1977: a starter handicap on the grass at Delaware Park. Sea Train won by daylight at odds of nearly 10-1, and the Bomber took sixty per cent of the win pool and two-thirds of the triple pool. He netted more than fifty thousand dollars. By that time, sheet sales generated enough income to allow Ragozin to phase out his stable and stop betting for good. He moved his office quarters out of his apartment and into his pres- ent office, on East Eleventh Street. Still, he fretted about his hard-core clientele. "These guys are all psychos, they're total social rejects," he said. "They're like Moonies-they devote their whole lives to one thing." Ragozin felt responsible for his regu- lars, even wben they bet his figures wrong. When they busted, he carried them, or granted loans and "rebates" up to ten thou- sand dollars. "You've got to be their nursemaid," he complained. "I'm not going to tell them to get lost, but it's a lot of trouble." In recent years, he has broadened his customer base, and the new-era Raggies are moderate men with families and real careers. They include eye specialists and tax lawyers, Texas real-estate magnates, and a vice-president at Con- tinental Can. They play perhaps once or twice a week, but Ragozin prefers it that way. Betting clients supply about three- quarters of Ragozin's revenues. The remainder comes from half a dozen owners, who pay five per cent of their purses plus twenty-five per cent of net profits for his data. It's a stiff fee (Ragozin's lone competitor, a former employee named Jerry Brown, charges three per cent of a horse's purchase price and three per cent of its purses):, but the customers aren't complaining. In only his second year, Dennis Heard, who established his stable after selling a Wall Street messenger service, finished fourteenth nationally in races won. Tresvant Stable, which is now managed by the Bomber, has won more than five million dollars in seven years. But no one has taken Ragozin's theo- ries as far as Glenn Lane, a twenty- eight-year-old wunderkind who got his start in the bond mar ket, and whose expertise with Ragozin's data has won him well over a million dol- lars this year. "When I first started out as a horseman, I got all the infor- mation I could and it always seemed that something was missing," he says. "Ragozin's figures gave me a way to analyze clearly, to cut through an the irrelevancies and garbage that are en- trenched in this game." Lane and Aly Lizza, of Gold-N- Oats, represent an exclusive vanguard. Many trainers still fear that speed figures strip them of their judgment and authority and, even worse, of their 79 "::;: ... ... '." < " t . ,. D . . :< :" y .:. S . " · R:. ..:. . ;. .." .:: .... Perry Como Bette Davis Sammy Davis, Jr. Nathan Milstein Alwin Nikolais Join the 10th annual gala celebration. Wednesday; December 30 9:00 p.m. on CBS-TV: A General Motors Mark of Excellence Presentation GM MARK OF EXCELLENCE -BLUE<- WATERS EACH HOTEL A-N.T.I.G.U-A Casual yet E egant 67 -spaçlousaccommooatlons overlookIDg the Canbbean.TwQ superb restaurants, one casual, one elegant. Two white sand beaches, waters ports, tennis; golf nearby. .' Surrounded by lush trop cal gardens ., And very bIue waters. For a brochure, call or write: DAVID B. MITCHELL & COMPANY, INC 200 MADISON AVE NEW YORK, NY 10016 212-696-1323; 800-372-1323 t) RISTOR \l\rrE Res. 861.1096 GASTRO OMIA Take.out 861'1533 CAFE 517.9269 Hosts: Antonio Bongioanni Mario Balducci . c=:::>